Broadband provider Brightspeed has completed a network deployment in Eutawville, South Carolina that was funded, in part, through the South Carolina 2021 Rural Broadband Grant Program. The network provides service to more than 3,000 addresses in the town and the surrounding Orangeburg County area.
The network is capable of 940 Mbps data speeds. Brightspeed invested half of the cost of the build.
Brightspeed was formed when Lumen Technologies spun off its incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) operations in 20 midwestern and southeastern states. The deal closed in October. The Eutawville project apparently was undertaken when Lumen was still the owner of the South Carolina operations.
“South Carolina’s broadband grant program is a great example of public and private organizations coming together to help meet the technology needs of citizens, communities and local businesses,” Steve Brewer, the director of state regulatory and legislative affairs at Brightspeed, said in a press release. “Eutawville residents can now use our fiber technology to improve everything they do online—distance learning, working, gaming, and streaming.”
Brightspeed has bigger plans for South Carolina moving forward. In August, the company said that it would deploy a fiber network to 50,000 addresses in the state.
The first phase would include 14,000 addresses and was scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. The balance of 36,000 addresses would be completed in subsequent years.
The technology used in Eutawville apparently is different from what Brightspeed has planned for the 50,000 additional locations. Those projects are to include XGS-PON platforms capable of symmetrical data speeds of more than 1 Gbps, which is faster than what is specified for the Eutwawville build.
